Thesis Defense

I had my thesis defense this week. The program is fantastic and my experience has been extremely positive and beneficial. It went well.

Thesis Show Give Away

I decided to make a mini poster as my thesis show favor. It shows the main characters from my four books, together, taking a stroll in the fields. It had been a while since I drew them, so I got the books out for reference, as well as some art to look at on my laptop. Also open on the laptop is Photobooth, which I use a lot.

I'll be printing a very limited number, may be 50, so if your at the show, keep your eyes open if you want one.

Freelance is in so I must switch gears for a bit and return to this later. But the camp drawings should keep coming, regardless.

InDesign, Lynda.com, and Blurb

I spent this afternoon with Lynda.com, InDesign, and Blurb getting book three ready for a sample. I found a title for it: The Bird Who Flew Alone and the Lion Who Joined Him and finalized the copy. The other two will go to lulu.com and Ill compare qualities. Also, last night I roughed out Lost Familiar. Just chicken scratches but the ending is somewhat resolved where earlier it was kind of up in the air.

And Together They Traveled Great Distances

The art for book three is done. It still doesn't have a title but Iv been calling it Lets Be Friends as the files get saved. Now I can take it to InDesign and finalize the written story; there is a rough draft but it could be better. That puts me a little ahead of my schedule which will allow me to move to book 4: Lost Familiar.

Image Eight

As I round the half way point for book three Iv been thinking about what will be next. For the thesis, this is it. I need to start to compile the written part and go into production mode to get these into InDesign and some protos made. That's not a small thing. If it was just making art, Id keep going and going with thesis art. That being said, I'm starting to think about the book that follows this project and Iv decided to move into Photoshop and paint it there. Iv got to get some other things done first but who knows, may be it will make it into the MFA.

There Was A Bird Who Flew Alone

When I received CS4 there was a registration gift; I didn't know they did that. I chose 30 days of lynda.com. Iv heard good things and should get a lot out of it, especially InDesign.

No Post

I finished up some projects so I started in on book three a little early. Again I'm not going to post all the art because I want something new to be seen when I get the books together. All the art was overwhelming during the first book because the project was so long and really wanted to see it done, even though I was enjoying each illustration. But now, like all things that are practiced, I'm used to it and can see longer patience coming through.

I'm thinking about moving this blog to the simple kingdom site and keeping it ultra basic. May be next year. Iv been circling my wagons on many front lately and the idea is appealing.

Project Thinking

Tightening up books one and two. I'm through the first round and am on re dos. Working on them at the same time has helped each of them in different ways. Its good to work on two or more projects at once; they feed off each other.

Character Study For Book 3

Iv been working on what the lion will look like for book 3. Its getting closer.

And He Was Caught By Hunters

Moving along. Tonight's pleasure painting will be a different lion from the so far untitled Migration story. Peppering in the colored water color (opposed to black and scan and color) with the weeks various assignments is working well. With all this work done in my different Moleskines, I will more than meet the 12 book challenge. This is a good thing on many levels.

On a working note, the Disney work has been coming in which is wonderful. Unfortunatly, as these things go (actually most of my freelance) its time released work so I cant post it. I know its a little like saying "yea, I have a girlfriend, you just dont know her cause she lives in Canada" but still.

A little mouse began running up and down him.

I'm on a big push to work on book one. With a few redos out of the way, its moving along. I found with book two, its best to focus and its a little over half way. There are changes to book two that will involve some cut and paste patching and a couple complete new ones. When one and two are done, it will be book three all the way to Ft. Worth for our next contact.

There was a little time today to put up more images on Simple Kingdom, rounding out the people section. Take a look...

Book Three

The third book in my thesis will be a Migration story. The original Migration was meant to be much longer than one short story, so I had to choose one theme short enough to stand on its own. I chose their meeting and started writing a draft with thumbnails that deals with finding valuable friends. Last night I sketched up a new lion and bird that will be the style of the book. I put lion on two legs and kept his face more lion like. Looking back on some earlier sketchbooks, I wanted to get back to stronger decorative marks while keeping a truer look to each animal.

So far, I am going to render it on cold press watercolor paper but may switch to a hot press if I don't love it. What I learned from the other books is to take it slow. I wont be rendering and re rendering pages. In stead, I will do small sketches while doing other work. That way, when Im ready to go, it will run smoothly.

I doubt the mane will stay that way.

Books

So I, or we, have decided to go ahead and finish the fable book I'm working on, tweaking the Mr. Rabbit book, and possibly finishing Migration for my thesis. Around the time that these need to be presented, I will most likely have finished the 12 sketchbooks. I said before that I wanted to write about that experience (probably an introduction with a bulk of imagery), which means that I will have four books "finished". How they are to be printed still remains. Things constantly change.

Umpteenth

My site is down and so is my main email. Learn from my mistake. Dont dump one web host for another unless you secure the new one first. I wasent worried about the site itself because its been down a couple days anyway. Because of terrible support, if you can call it that, I switched host services, but I failed to think of the email attached to it. Luckily I got a job in by phone. Good thing they didnt email. It should be up and running by tomorrow night.

Realization

I did a similar image seven times between sketches and paintings; five were paintings. At the first brushstroke I wanted to do this one over too. What I finally realized, and I know this is obvious, was that watercolor is not vector. Why struggle over the ideal line when its analog? If it should look like digital line, I should scan in the sketch and trace it as perfectly as I can. But its not, and it shouldn't. What happens is that I do a sketch in water color and its where I want it. Then another, and another, and so gains momentum. Then comes the "final art" and it tightens up and looses its appeal. Looking rough and making mistakes is why this looks appealing to me. This is freeing and natural. I'm not being careless, just letting the lines come out as they will. Some will like it, some wont. But how is that different than anything else? I was talking about a painter I admire to someone and they said they didn't care much for their work. I have a friend I admire and another friend thinks they are foolish.

Im looking at scratchboard, pen and ink, black woodcuts, and all one color art to allow this to be one color.

Dogs Revisited

Last minute patterns for the California trip.  Iv got a lot of it printed out and some prints coming later this week to show for my thesis progress.  Looking at it all together, I have way less than I thought.  However, considering where it was in November in NYC, its not too bad.  Also, from what Iv seen and been told, the whole thing could change any minute anyway.  I will see what they think.

The patterns themselves are coming along in how they are put together so that's progress itself. Iv got this book idea where the patterns are becoming a supporting role rater than the lead. Still they need to complement and strengthen the narrative.  Not there yet but very close.  Once the direction is established, Ill push through.

Old Toad / PS Painting

At the last stage the file gets flattened for color and value adjustments.  Using levels, variations, and color layers can put a little more punch into the illustration.  But thats still not the final stage.  Variations will sometimes over saturate and color will dull the image.  After the operations, color pick these new hues and paint with them a little to blend.  Almost every operation in PS can use a little help. 

In my animal Folklore/Mythology search I found that toads are linked to fertility ( I think I knew that?).  Taking a break from the patterns but staying to topic, I wanted to do an illustration jumping off from the Valentines Day direction and start to get into landscape painting in PS.  I will be dropping this toad into that composition along with other narrative elements.

Element

Moon Migration

Thinking more about that bird migration myth... them flying to the moon.

Bear Man

Bears play a big role in many mythologies.  I was reading about the Vikings wearing bear skins (berserkers in Norse) into battle to work up an animal fighting spirit.  This is derived from that, but considerably less aggressive.

This is just a piece of the whole image.